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[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Dale Thayer And His Kenny Powers Starter Kit
Dale Thayer, Dioner Navarro, Scott Kazmir, Troy Percival, Uncategorized May 23rd. 2009, 6:54am
Time to bring back the GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
click above image for boxscore
THE GOOD: Dale Thayer’s ‘Stache. Sure it was a great game all-around, but by far the best moment of the night was getting a look at the piece of fuzzy art on Thayer’s face. The ’stache along with a bit of a gut and his mullet starter kit and we think we are on the verge of a real-life Kenny Powers…Reid Brignac. He only had 4 big league games under his belt prior to last night, but he had been carrying an 0-fer (0-10) since July 12 of last year. In his first at bat in 2009, he just missed being hit in the head, but came back the very next pitch and grounded one up of the middle for his first big league hit. We would love to see about 2,000 more of those…The Svelte Catcher. 4 hits and 3 RBI, including a 2-run home run in the 2nd that really got the ball rolling…Andy Sonnanstine. The run support can help a pitcher relax on the mound and that may have been exactly what The Duke needed.
THE BAD: Attendance. The announced crowd of 16,226 was laughable. We would be willing to bet it wasn’t even a third of that. And that team get’s a state of the art baseball stadium? What a joke.
THE TELLING: Jonny Gomes is back in the big leagues, just in time to face Victor Martinez and the Indians. Coincidence? We. Think. Not…The Devil Rays ($32) are now the second highest scoring team in the AL, behind only the Jays. But they are still only 9th in the AL in ERA at 4.66. The starting pitchers have a 5.10 ERA, while the relievers haven’t been terrible at 3.92…The Jays have lost 4 in a row and their lead over the Red Sox is down to half a game and 1.5 over the Yankees.
SUNBURST PLAYER OF THE GAME: Dioner Navarro, although Dale Thayer’s ’stache was a close second.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Andrew Friedman spoke with Todd Kalas during the game and suggested that Scott Kazmir will be on the DL for a while. The team first wants to get his leg 100% before they even let him throw a baseball. And then they will work to get his mechanics back in order before bringing him back to the big leagues. Friedman did not give a time-table, but it sounds like a couple of months, give or take.
- Joe Maddon will not go bullpen-by-committee or as he likes to call it “by matchup,” which is what he probably wanted to do all along. [Tampa Tribune]
- Marc Lancaster has more quotes on the possible retirement of Troy Percival. [Rays Report]
- There was a bit of a stir yesterday when Aaron Sharockman reported that the Al Lang Field site along the St. Pete waterfront was no longer an option for a new open-air baseball field…Did anybody still think it was an option? We thought the waterfront was taken out of play a long time ago and that was why this mysterious ABC group was exploring other options. [St. Pete Times]
- “Ode to Zobrist”…Must read. [Rays the Stakes]
Damn this is great, keep him, we now have our own GOOSE
How about Thayer. This not so kid (28) looks liks a CLOSER. They should give him a better look than 3 days.
Three innings of good control and 92 to 95 mph with movement.
I love the quotes in the Sharockman story from the old farts gloating about how their crappy waterfront was ’saved’. Screw St. Pete. I’m certainly not a Trop hater by any means (I went to 20+ games last year and have been going and enjoying them since 1999), but after going up north on vacation last week seeing games in Camdens Yards and Nationals Park, continuing to play in the Trop is really not a long term option. There’s no way they are still playing games there when that lease runs out. I don’t care about the 20 years left on the lease — money talks and this ownership group will have a new stadium somewhere in the next six years or so. The city can’t hold this team hostage for the next two decades simply because they built that crummy dome with no tenant and no real plan back in 1986. St. Pete had its chance to step up and get a real major league facility built and they chose not to do it. They simply don’t have the ability or willingness to be a Major League City.
And please don’t give me any of this garbage about exploring the Toytown option or whatever it’s called — that sounds like the worst of all options combined. Bad traffic, still not centrally located in the Tampa Bay market, and nowhere near anything else anyone wants to do. Mark my words, within two years this ownership group will be on the verge of securing a real major league park either in Hillsborough County or somewhere outside of Florida. And then the only reason I’ll ever have to go back to Pinellas County will be for Ribfest. I can’t wait.
THIS
Please do St. Pete’s residence a favor….
Stay in Hillbilly Co. with the down troden and Oh Yeas!
And there are buses, trains and planes that leave every hour for the beautiful places up NORTh….get on one!
Technically the word you were searching for was “residents.” Also the word is spelled “downtrodden.” Not to get all grammar police on you, but before you insult an entire county, at least make sure you aren’t painting yourself as ignorant in the process.
To the stadium concern, I just hope the Bay Area can stay interested in the Rays long enough to keep the momentum behind a new stadium. After a mediocre start, it seems like people are breaking their ankles to get off the bandwagon and I feel this area has yet to prove it deserves a big league team and a fancy new ballpark.
Classy. The way you write I’d think you were one of those “down troden oh yeas”. You might want to look things up in the dictionary before using them in a sentence, but of course you’ll have learn how to spell correctly to do that.
Well I was going to get spell check but with you two I won’t have to…
I use to have a secretary to correct my mistakes but you two will do!
By the way, what kinda english is KillaTapes, I couldn’t find it in the dictionary, I’ll look in the Tampa edition!
Also, attendance this year is up about 50% at Rays games…Hows attendance at Bucs games??
“Well I was going to get spell check but with you two I won’t have to…
I use to have a secretary to correct my mistakes but you two will do!”
LMAO! Ownage of the WEEK!
I think Thayer’s got a little Al Hrabosky in him. We’ve already got a “Mad Australian” though, so we can’t give him a Hrabosky-like nickname. If he lets that mustache go a bit we can call him “Goose”.
As CharlieRay says, he looks pretty for real out there. I’d like to see him get a few more opportunities, but it seems certain he’s going back to Durham once King David is called up.
Like Anderson’s comment “takes a real man to pull that one off” ;o)
I thought Staat’s reaction to Anderson’s comment was priceless. lol
Seeing how “Goose” is already taken by a HoFer, I don’t think we should use that name for Dale. I wouldn’t want to see a LT/LDT debate going on involving the Rays.
I like “Flavor Saver Thayer”.
You have a point – no reason to saddle him with the baggage that would come with “Goose”. “Flavor Saver” is not bad though!
Easy to rip a team who has a open air stadium in tropical Florida. The Rays would have been rained out the whole series against the A’s and all this weekend if we played in a football stadium. That retractable roof will be a blessing for baseball fans down there, no rain outs and air conditioning.
That’s been my point all along!
Recommendation/request – Prof, can you crate a forum for this website? There appears to be a number of issues that generate interest (Maddon’s “old boys’ network”, Rays in St. Pete, Sonny, Percy, etc.) that create significant discussion. But after you post a new topics, it seems strange/difficult to try to find the discussion of hot topics on the older posts. If your software easily allows it, create a single forum which includes folders for hot topics and folders for recent posts. Or something like that.
Alternatively, do you have a suggested forum for people to hang out in? (I would prefer to be here.) There are a number of commenters who contribute some interesting thoughts and I would like to interact with them.
Finally, are you planning on having a live postings like last year? They were very enjoyable.
Usually I direct people to the Facebook group (Raysheads) but I know not everybody is interested in doing the Facebook thing. Back in the day, I know RaysBB.com was pretty popular but I haven’t been there in ages.
Doing something on this site is an interesting idea and not really something I have ever considered. But I know how it is when a conversation gets burried, so I will look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.
OK 3 points
1-lets get Brian Anderson in the booth all next year, kevin is HO HUMing me to death.
2- I vote for an open air retractable roof stadium in Tampa, a tid bit for you, my neighbor is an arch with a tampa firm, but world wide, and they have been givin the go ahead for a stadium in Tampa for the Rays….;o)
3-Keep Brian…..thank you very much